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Last week, the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) announced that it is launching a new Licensee Relationship Management System in order to better facilitate communications between existing and prospective licensees and the regulatory body. The system, developed by Microsoft, is designed to simplify the licensing processes and keep them – as much as possible – online… Read more »
According to a Wednesday report in the Financial Times (FT), GVC Holdings PLC, the parent company of partypoker, attempted to acquire UK bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral during the last few weeks, but had its offer declined. FT says that its two sources close to the situation, GVC set the value of Ladbrokes Coral at 140p per… Read more »
Maine became the 15th state to enact legislation to legalize and regulate daily fantasy sports on Wednesday, continuing its momentum that is leaving online poker in the dust. It is also the sixth state to do so this year, following Arkansas, Delaware, Mississippi, Vermont, and neighboring New Hampshire. The bill, named “An Act To Regulate… Read more »
PokerStars parent company Amaya Inc. has finally made the transition it previewed this spring, embracing the power of the PokerStars brand and changing its corporate name to The Stars Group. Along with the rebranding comes a headquarters move from Montreal to Toronto. In a brief press release, the company said: TORONTO, Canada – August 1,… Read more »
Last week, Macau’s Judiciary Police arrested two men for alleged casino chip counterfeiting, charging them with fraud. It is also very possible, if not likely, that the men are linked to as many as six other counterfeit chip cases since July 19th. In a press release, the police department indicated that it responded to a… Read more »
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) is currently conducting a bidding process, seeking to turn over control of the Greater Toronto Area’s (GTA) gambling venues to a private operator. According to the Globe & Mail, Canada’s most read weekly newspaper, the selection should be made within the next few weeks. The three locations whose… Read more »
On Wednesday night, an eBay auction for a 2017 World Series of Poker bracelet associated with poker pro Liv Boeree brought in $10,200 for charitable causes. The bracelet was listed by Raising for Effective Giving (REG), a charitable organization founded by Boeree, her boyfriend and fellow poker player Igor Kurganov, and poker pros Stefan Huber… Read more »
A week ago, I wrote an article lamenting Chris Ferguson’s presence near the top of the 2017 World Series of Poker Player of the Year leader board. He is down to third from the second spot he was in at the time I wrote it, but he is still dangerously close to the number one… Read more »
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) recently unveiled new regulations with the goal of making sure consumers are given better options by online gaming operators for ways to review their own gambling activity. The requirements that online operators will need to have in place by April 1st, 2018 are: • ensure consumers are able to… Read more »
Sports bettors – or wannabe sports bettors – have reason to be optimistic (but not overly confident) as the United States Supreme Court has said that it has granted certiorari in New Jersey’s “Christie II” sports betting case. A certiorari is a legal term which essentially means that a higher court – the Supreme Court… Read more »
The public nomination stage for the 2017 class of the Poker Hall of Fame is now open, as is evident by the availability of the online ballot on the Poker Hall of Fame website. As always, poker fans (and non-fans, for that matter, though I don’t know why someone who didn’t like poker would participate)… Read more »
The proposed merge of daily fantasy sports (DFS) leaders DraftKings and FanDuel will not be happening if the federal government has anything to do with it. On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that, along with the Attorneys General of California and Washington, D.C., it will file a complaint in federal district court in… Read more »
Golden Entertainment Inc. announced on Monday that it will acquire American Casino & Entertainment Properties LLC (ACEP) in a deal worth approximately $849.2 million. ACEP owns the Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower in Las Vegas, Arizona Charlie’s Decatur and Arizona Charlie’s Boulder, and the Aquarius Casino Resort in Laughlin. Golden, which was once known as… Read more »
The New Jersey State Assembly passed a bill which would legalize and regulate daily fantasy sports last week by a vote of 56 to 16 (six did not vote and two abstained, which sounds the same but is actually different). A3532 is sponsored by Assemblymen Vincent Mazzeo, Ralph Caputo, Paul Moriarty, and John J. Burzichelli… Read more »
Tony Romo is somewhat of a controversial figure in Dallas sports history. He played for the NFL’s Cowboys for over a decade, most of that as the team’s starting quarterback. He had his injury problems, but when healthy, he was generally quite good with moments of greatness. In 2014, the last season in which he… Read more »
When it comes to legal news, the gambling world (or at least the gambling U.S.) has been focused on Pennsylvania this year, as it is expected that online gambling will be legalized in the Commonwealth before the year is up. Sneakily, though, a small move is being made to legalize and regulate sports betting in… Read more »
DraftKings and FanDuel are far and away the dominate players in the daily fantasy sports (DFS) space in the United States, owning somewhere in the vicinity of 90 percent of the market share. So when it came time for the National Basketball Association (NBA) – an equity holder of FanDuel – to partner with a… Read more »
The Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City has been closed for six months (cue reminder that Donald Trump somehow ran multiple casinos into the ground). It will not be opening any time particularly soon, but it does look like it will have new life breathed into it, as its sale to Hard Rock International… Read more »
The Buffalo News reported last week that the New York’s Seneca Nation of Indians is discontinuing its payments of casino revenue to the state. The plan is to halt the casino share this week; if it happens, the New York state government stands to lose as much as $110 million in revenue per year. It… Read more »
Blacklists are not generally considered a good thing. I mean, right when you hear the word “blacklist,” you kind of recoil and nearly inaudibly say, “egh,” don’t you. Well, there are a lot of people making “who farted?” faces in Colombia right now, as the South American country’s gambling regulatory agency, Coljuegos has handed a… Read more »
Neither company has confirmed anything, but reports out of Pennsylvania last week have the Sands Bethlehem Casino on the verge of being sold to MGM Resorts International. According to The Morning Call, which cites two sources for its information, the deal for the Las Vegas Sands-owned casino would be worth $1.3 billion. A few weeks… Read more »
The connotation of gambling is not typically a positive one; gamblers are not typically thought by “outsiders” to be generous or philanthropic. We in the poker industry know better, though, as every year, there are loads of live and online charity tournaments and funding drives, highlighted by the One Drop tournaments at the World Series… Read more »
Collegiate sports are fun to watch. I love my Virginia Cavaliers; while I don’t get too hung up on the exploits of kids half my age (my wife would argue this), I enjoy cheering for my alma mater’s student-athletes and I do take a little pride in seeing them get better and better throughout their… Read more »
The important poker people were in Beverly Hills last Thursday receiving their shimmering trophies at the 3rd Annual GPI American Poker Awards. It was kind of like Sunday night’s Oscars except nobody posted about it on Facebook and David Peters was correctly announced as GPI Player of the Year on the first try. Many of… Read more »
As we told you on Tuesday, there has been a lot of talk in the past week about an incident on BetOnline.com in which a live blackjack dealer appeared to cheat a player. The site has responded by saying it is investigating the incident; it has also jettisoned the provider that had been running the… Read more »
